DUI BLOG

Comments

1. Thanks for this message.

   If only the United States courts would take a page from the British Columbia Supreme Court against criminalizing addiction. A recent B.C. Supreme Court decision threw a wrench or more in criminalizing drug addiction.

   I do not konw if your comments section accepts URL links, so instead I suggest you find this issue by going to the cbc canada site with a google search of “”british columbia” “supreme court” drug addiction. The BC Supreme Court ruling on this appears to be at cfdp[dot]ca[slash]sif[underscore]bcsc[dot]pdf

   Comment by jonkatz5 — August 15, 2008 @ 5:17 am

2. Firstly, it’s no surprise that a Texas jury would go extremely overboard in such a conviction. Treating alcoholism as a disease is something that courts seem to be way behind on; throwing people in jail 25 years or more without there being any fatality or harm caused is outrageous and unconstititional.

   Comment by joe — August 15, 2008 @ 6:55 am

3. The thought police are alive and well. Why not make it be illegal just to be intoxicated? Who knows what you’ll do when under the influence? Ah, I keep forgetting there is money to be made.

   Comment by koivisto — August 15, 2008 @ 4:39 pm

4. Has this man ever had an accident of any nature? It appears he is being sentenced for a crime that hasn’t happened yet. Child molesters and rapists get off with far less.

   This certainly is lopsided…

   Comment by David W — August 16, 2008 @ 5:59 am

5. I am currently facing my second DWI. My sentence came down as DWI 1, which carries no jail time, through some accident of fate or incompetency. If I were to appeal, I would be putting myself right back into the crosshairs of going to jail for 14 to 30 days. The part that truly pisses me off is that the prosecutions case was weak and my evidence was supposedly strong. However, the judge played two roles that day, that of the prosecution and judge when it came time for my judgment. The simple fact of the matter was that my blood test was .070 and my breath test was 0.95 and these were about an hour apart. The judge said “fine” to my blood test and counted back from this point to the time of my arrest putting me at .090 without the prosecution making this argument. It’s really too bad I didn’t murder someone as this “bloody glove” evidence would have been thrown out when the glove didn’t fit and I would be free to live my life with only 1 DWI conviction on my record.

   I might add that even with my first DWI, I have never had an accident and have never caused another person any harm with a motor vehicle (or otherwise for that matter). I have come closer to doing so when I was talking on my cell phone than ever when I was “drunk” by government standards. Wrong of course by their standards, but I know when I can’t drive, and have crashed on front lawns in the dead of winter because I knew I could not safely drive. Personal responsibility is simply thrown out the window in regard to today’s sobriety laws (including the whole “legal age 21″ law).

   I want to fight this judgment, but even my lawyer recommends not to as I do not face jail time with this sentence, which I would if I appeal. I also face a state expert that will say that a .025 reduction an hour is reasonable upholding the breathalyser. I don’t know what to do, I know that I was not a danger that day, but apparently that does not matter.

   Another thing that I might add, the rate of medical related deaths is 16 times higher than the total of traffic related deaths, not including drunk driving. If that doesn’t make you sick or wake up, I don’t know what will.

   Comment by donleedon — August 18, 2008 @ 7:28 am

6. Wow. Sounds like a lot of trouble. If I were you, I wouldn’t have anything to drink before driving. Oh, I know how unreasonable thist is right? MADD is such a buzz-kill…

   Comment by Yumacat — January 1, 2009 @ 10:36 am

7. part of the legal definition of driving while intoxicated is impaired judgment – the inability to make rational and

   intelligent choices…..

   So, if a person, like myself, finds themselves in an establishment miles away from home, with no one to call to

   pick them up or give them a ride what should they do? A person with “the ability to make rational and intelligent

   choices…” would probably try to secure a taxi ride. This IS exactly what I did. I got up off the stool, walked over

   to the hostess’s desk and asked for a phonebook for the area with the hopes to find the address of where I was

   staying while visiting the arear. Unfortunatley, the phonebook didn’t cover the area that I were I was staying while

   on my visit since it was over twenty six miles away. I returned to my place where I had been seated and noticed

   that the lady behind the bar, also the manager, had walked up to the hostess and seemed to be asking the

   hostess a question directed towards me, as she inticated by the nodding of her head in my direction. Since I

   was one of only two people in the establishment and the other patron was a friend, I later found out, of the

   bartender/manager, I assumed she was wondering what I had walked up to the hostess for. I sat there and then

   asked if I could obtain a cash advance from my credit card that had been sitting infront of me on the bar, with my

   full legal name I might add. I asked the only other patron how much it would cost to get from point A to point B.

   How many miles it was and both the bar manager and the patron agreed it would cost about $40 for the taxi fare.

   I asked if I could have a cash advance from my credit card. The bar manager agreed and I thought everything

   was alright. I then noticed the bar manager pick up my credit card, look at it very closely and then go into the

   back office area behind the bar. She retrurned after a few minutes and set it back down infront of me. She

   looked at the only other patron sitting at the bar and said “no, nothing is open”. She was referring to “nothing

   being open on Wisconsin Circuit Courts open website which is like no other courts website in the country. I

   inquired is she was referring to a hotel since I had asked if there was still one in the area. She said “no, nothing

   open” as if to indicate that she wasn’t referring to a hotel being open but had been referring to something else

   as “no, nothing open”. I then asked her if I could have a fifty dollar advance instead of forty just to ensure that I

   make it to my destination safelty. She said “nope!”. I said “excuse me?”. And asked her again if I could have

   fifty dollars cash advance. She again said “nope!”. I then asked her if there was an ATM machine. She said

   sarcastically that there was noATM machine, “we don’t have one.” was her words. She then looked at the only

   other patron in the establishment and said “I suppose she wants to write a check!” in a very sarcastic tone of

   voice. I was somewhat shocked by the way they were treating me. I felt that I was being harrassed. I hesitated to

   ask but did anyway. I said “could I cash a check?” to which she responded, “we don’t cash personal checks.” A

   few minutes went by and she then said that she was going to “close the place” and I asked if I could sit there for

   awhile until I could figure out what I should do. She said “no” that she was going to close the place. I asked if the

   Wisconsin’s Bar Owner’s Association or Tavern Owner’s League could pay for my taxi fare. This made her

   angry. She then went into the back room where she had gone earlier after looking at my credit card and

   renigging on advancing me the already agreed upon cash advance from my credit card for the taxi fare. I got up,

   walked outside and got into my car. I sat there and thought about what I was going to do. It was cold and I

   started the engine. I took the chance to drive and was called in. I didn’t have intentions of being in the area. I had

   offered a ride to the establishment which was why I was there in the first place. The person I gave a ride to was

   an aquaintance that I had not seen in over six years and who was known in the establishment as ” a regular”. I’ve

   never been a “regular” in any bar, nor would I want to be. The aquaintance I had given a ride to was known for

   having pushed her aged mother down and left her for dead a year prior to my having unfortunately having found

   myself in her company at her “regular” place she hung out. The aquantance only received thirty days in jail for

   having killed her mother. She was a nice lady. It was sad because the mother, when I had met her twenty years

   ealier, was working in the office at a hospital but was forced to give up her job to stay at home to take care of her

   alcoholic daughter. I should never have been in this “aquaintance’s” company and wouldn’t have had she not

   invited herself along on a dinner date with my former next door neighbor who I met her through. I offered both a

   ride to thier destinations since neither had transportation. She lost her license and he (my former neighor from

   twenty years ago) didn’t have a vehicle.

   Because of the arrest, it posted to Wisconsin’s open circuit courts website within a day and I lost my job that I

   was suppose to start two weeks later with Humana as a Individual Application Anaylst at the Green Bay office.

   The job was suppose to bring me down to the Milwaukee area over the course of the job duties at which time I

   would have stayed a my fiance’s cottage that he had purchased a month earlier, the address I was trying to

   locate in the phonebook at the hostess’s desk at the establishment I was at.

   I went to court, was put in prison and now I’m out. My career is over. My life is over and I have lost two jobs, one

   with Humana and the other with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company. I had three attorneys at the cost of

   twenty seven thousand dollars. The first one showed up impaired, hung over, late and appologizing stating that

   he had been to a Super Bowl party the night before. I should have fired him but I was afraid of loosing my ten

   thousand dollars I had paid him (5K down and 5K if there was a trial). A year went by and he showed up five

   days prior to the scheduled trial hungover, impaired, stinking of booze so bad I could hardly sit next to him. That

   was in March of 2006. I had been working job at Northwestern Mutual for three months. I thought he was doing

   his job. Obvioulsy not. He asked the judge for more time to prepare for trial. The judge denied his request. The

   judge requested another pre-trial status hearing the day prior to the scheduled trial five days later. The weekend

   fell between the first pretrial status hearing and the second. The attorney talked me into pleading guilty based

   upon erroneous information which I based my plea upon. After pleading guilty, I asked the attorney to vacate the

   guilty plea. A motion to do so was filed. I went into court, took the stand, was cross-examined as to why I

   believed I should be allowed to vacate my guilty plea and during the cross-examination the judge stopped the

   proceedings and said that he couldn’t allow the proceedings to continue that I must allow my attorney to step

   down and be a witness on my behalf and I must hire a new attorney. The judge asked if I was will to do this to

   which I responded “yes”. The judge asked if the attorney was willing to do this and he replied “yes”. THIS WAS

   IMMEDIATELY POSTED TO WISCONSIN’S OPEN CIRCUIT COURTS WEBSITE FOR THE ENTIRE

   WORLD TO SEE….”ATTORNEY WITHDRAWS”. My manager saw this on the website and laid me off. I hired

   another attorney went back into court on the second motion to vacate the guilty plea and it was denied. A

   sentencing hearing was scheduled. I then found out that my second attoney had just had her law license

   reinstated after having it revoked for six months for having over billed the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s

   Office. She had it reinstated only a few months prior to my having retained her. I felt uncomforable about this so

   I searched online for another attorney. I located who’s website claimmed to be the only attorney certified in the

   state of Wisconsin to practice in this particular area of law and one in only one hundered certified in the US to

   practice in this area of law. I called the attorney’s office. His secretary said that he wouldn’t step foot into the

   court the next morning at 8 am unless he had 12 thousand dollars in his hand. I hesitated. It was a lot of money. I

   spoke with a few people and asked thier opinion and they said not to give him the money. But I did based upon

   what the legal secretary said to me, in addtion to the credentials listed on his website. His secretary said that

   “there was probably more that they could do for me at the appeals level than at that stage of the proceedings”

   since it was the night prior to sentencing. I took the chance and gave them the money. At the sentencing the

   judge instructed the attorney to instruct me to my post conviction options after the sentence was pronounced.

   An appeals form was placed infront of me on the defendant’s desk. The twelve thousand dollar attorney said he

   “didn’t have his reading glasses”. I paid twelve thousand dollars to an attoney that didn’t even have the diligence

   to bring his reading glasses to a sentencing hearing. Wow!! After sentencing and incarceration he did absolutely

   nothing for my case. He conviently became “a friend of the court” which in legal terms means that he goes over

   the case and sees if he thinks there is anything that is appealable. It would be to his financial benefit TO FIND

   NOTHING SINCE HE WOULD THEN BE ABLE TO POCKET THE MONEY AND HAVE THE JUDGE AND

   PROSECUTING ATTORNEY ON HIS SIDE. In other words, a “no merit brief” is just that. An attorney just hops

   onto the other side in court. Just jumps over to the other table in the courtroom with the prosecuting DA. AND

   POCKETS THE MONEY. Whalla! Whow is all I can say!! Note: Had Wisconsin’s open circuit courts website not

   been available to the receptionist and the attorney upon my having initially contacted them the night prior to

   sentencing, I wouldn’t have been “looked up” (the 12K attorney admitted he looked me up and saw “attorney

   withdraws” on the website during our initial phone conversation the night prior to going into court for the

   sentencing hearing) and taken advantage of. People in the legal field abuse the website and use it to make fast

   money. Take the money and simply go through the motions in court. “Motions” meaning nothing in a legal sense

   just simply being there and appearing.

   Comment by WI_CCAP_Setup — January 7, 2009 @ 11:17 am

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